AMD and developer address planners

Officials from Advanced Micro Devices Inc. and CH2M Hill gave presentations today at the Saratoga County Planning Board’s annual planning and zoning conference.

The two talks were designed to give local planning and zoning board members a sense of what they can expect when AMD builds its $3.2 billion computer chip factory planned for Saratoga County.

CH2M Hill is a engineering, architecture and design firm based in Englewood, Colo. that has worked with AMD, Intel Corp. and IBM Corp. on their “chip fab” projects.

Dick Sheehy, director of advanced planning with CH2M Hill in Portland, Ore., told hundreds of planners who attended the conference that the economic ripple effect that AMD would create would take a while to gain steam. A bedroom community outside Portland called Hillsboro is home to a major Intel manufacturing operation, and the area has seen tremendous growth.

“This doesn’t happen overnight,” Sheehy said. “It takes time.”

AMD officials did not say when they plan to break ground on the fab, which would be built at the Luther Forest Technology Campus in Malta.

The company has until July 2009 to decide whether or not to build the factory and be eligible for $1.2 billion in financial incentives the state has offered the Sunnyvale, Calif. company.

However, AMD officials did say that if they do go forward with the project, it would take just two years, compared to the two and a half years that is typical for a chip fab.